Informative Tales About Men Who Made a Mark

Samuel Clemens lived two childhoods growing up in the frontier town of Hannibal, Mo., which is appropriate since he would also go on to write under two names--his given, Samuel Clemens, and the pen name Mark Twain.

As the son of a judge, Clemens had an official childhood that was annoyingly formal and came to be known as his shoes-on existence. The second, the carefree shoes-off one, revolved around the broad Mississippi River, Glasscock’s Island, an old mill and mysterious McDowell’s Cave. These would be the memories that would eventually inform Mark Twain.

“The personalities that burned themselves into the young lad’s memory were not the worthy citizens of Hannibal but its colorful rogues and outsiders,” writes Stewart Ross in “Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn” (Viking, 44 pages, $16.99).

And we’re all the richer for that since Clemens’ boyhood acquaintances became the inspiration for many of the characters in “Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” stories that remain among the landmarks of American literature more than a century after they were written.

In this book for middle-grade students, Ross and illustrator Ronald Himler paint a rich, detailed portrait of the multifaceted Clemens. A devoted family man, Clemens nonetheless passed many nights in the local tavern, for example. A famous humorist, he could be famously moody as well, and though he was a successful writer and lecturer, he also went bankrupt.

“You don’t know about me without you having read a book by the name of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,’ ” Twain once wrote. And he was right. But Ross, thankfully, helps fill in the gaps.

Much less focused but equally informative is Elizabeth MacLeod’s “Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life” (Kids Can Press, 32 pages, $12.99). In it, the author offers something for all readers by weaving short text blocks, photo captions and dozens of creative illustrations together to tell the story of the man who invented the telephone. But that’s not all he invented. AGB, as MacLeod calls him, also invented a system of air-conditioning, first suggested using radium to treat cancer, devised a device for testing hearing and invented numerous toys that he was too embarrassed to have patented.

The book closes with a detailed timeline and a list of related Web sites and museums that point students to more detailed resources on the inspirational life of one of history’s great inventors.

To inspire younger readers, there’s the recently released “Sebastian: A Book About Bach” (Harcourt Brace, 40 pages, $16), which explores the work of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach for kids ages 5 to 8. The richly colored book, written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter, is simple and straightforward.

Bach’s career was a prolific one: He wrote more than 1,000 pieces of music, many of which are still loved the world over more than 300 years after his death. He also fathered more than 20 children.

And finally, in “Leonardo da Vinci for Kids” (Chicago Review Press, 104 pages, $16.95), Janis Herbert profiles the Italian astronomer, scientist, botanist, mathematician, engineer, painter and all-round good guy. The language is advanced and the concepts they explore difficult, making this volume most appropriate for older, more advanced readers. But the book is interactive as each chapter contains instructions for engaging activities that kids can do at home to learn more about the art and science of Leonardo da Vinci.

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Kevin Baxter can be reached by e-mail at kevin.baxter@latimes.com.